Posts: 14

Topic: Re: M-Audio M-Track Plus... can anybody help me?

Hey, all -

I purchased an M-Audio M-Track Plus for recording, and am having a helluva problem with it: Audacity is not recognizing it as a stereo device, and is only giving me one-sided/mono input when recording.

Is anyone familiar with the M-Track or M-Track Plus? What am I doin' wrong? Should I remove and re-install the device?

Re: Re: M-Audio M-Track Plus... can anybody help me?

Hi coctails Russell Harding one of our moderators knows alot about these programs,you might try too e-mail him.He is at the electric portion of the forum subjects. Also in the recording and editor areas.

Re: Re: M-Audio M-Track Plus... can anybody help me?

I'll take a stab at this one..... although it has been awhile since I've used Audacity, if memory serves, there was a thing about installing Asio4All as the default audio driver (in Windows systems) to get the program to properly recognize peripheral input devices. You would have to hook up your device to the pc, then choose the device in Asio as the default input, and THEN select it as the input device in Audacity (near the center of the window by the mic icon) and select 2 channel to get a stereo recording track and monitor output. You also had to unselect your device when you were done (as the default) in order for your native sound card to operate normally after your recording session was finished.

I think it has to do with the pc seeing the usb input as a direct replacement for the onboard mic (on laptops) or a stand alone mic input through the microphone input on your sound card...... hence "assuming" to only see a mono audio stream.

Check your settings and advise accordingly.

Take Care;The Other Pacific Coast Chordian....... Doug (well Okay, Dino counts too, and Jerome, and Tim who is UTL) Edited to Add Rickyjack and DiamondT among the list..... memory failing, is that still a sign of getting senile???

Re: Re: M-Audio M-Track Plus... can anybody help me?

I dont know how your sending the signal into your PC if it is usb I do not know what advise to give you but if you have rca outs in your M track plus get a Y cord with rca to stereo mini jack they only cost around 4 or 5 dollars and run the rca's out of your M track into your mic input on the computer you should get a stereo signal in Audacity, also when you open the Audacity program there are settings in the middle below the recording and playblack level indicators one is a drop down screen on the right side where you can select monitor input if the signal is stereo both level indicators on top will move when you hit play on the M track this will tell you it will record stereo when you click the record on Audacity.

Re: Re: M-Audio M-Track Plus... can anybody help me?

Doug -- thanks for your "stab," I'll give it a go and letcha know how it turns out...

Dino -- I was actually hoping Russell would see this and chime in... he may do so yet.

Doug -- you mention that "...it has been awhile since I've used Audacity" - is there another recorder that you'd recommend in its stead? I'm not particularly all that loyal to Audacity (I find it relatively easy for editing my podcast) - I'd be amenable to switching...

Re: Re: M-Audio M-Track Plus... can anybody help me?

It has been awhile since I wandered away from Windows to Linux. With that change I also lost Audacity (although I do have it installed on my Desktop pc). Audacity is certainly adequate for most things that we are likely to be doing and there are plenty of add-ons (vst) that work well with it. Jerome is partial to Reaper, I have been playing around with Ardour, but not doing much in the music recording end for awhile, so am just rusty.

For the most part they are all similar (in the free catagory), so it's kinda up to you to pick one...... just a whole lot easier to hang with one rather than deal with the learning curve of something different. They are constantly getting better and adding functionality, so .......

Of the bunch Audacity was the easiest to master when we were checking out software to recommend for Chordie Recorders, so it has likely the most users here in the community (not counting the garage band appl;e folks).

Re: Re: M-Audio M-Track Plus... can anybody help me?

Holy cow, Russell - you snuck your post in while I wasn't lookin'!

Yes, I am running it thru my usb pot - I will look into the y-cord possibility shortly & get back & report - yeah, I already knew about the input indicator in Audacity - that was the other way I confirmed it was installed as a mono entity...

Re: Re: M-Audio M-Track Plus... can anybody help me?

Juat a quick addition.... if you use a "Y" (L,R, RCA to 3,5mm stereo adapter) it should go into the "Line in" jack on your sound card, The "Mic in" is only a mono.

I use a laptop Doug so the mic input is stereo if it is a desktop then the only other input is the line in on my Dell desktop there is no mic in only a line in

Juat goes to show, my sound card is dolby 7.1 with a whold slew of plug-ins stacked on the backplate. Some in, some out, some amplified, some line level and such.

You are correct though that most laptops will have a common jack for mic & line in, which would be dual channel....... and some of the newer ones have only one that shares mic in with monitor out requiring a "special" headset or an adapter. Have not got my head around that setup yet.... like what do you do if you want to record something and monitor it at the same time, or feed in a backing track and record along with it. Guess we will have to get an audio interface and route everything through that via usb. One more chunk of hardware I guess.

Re: Re: M-Audio M-Track Plus... can anybody help me?

Juat a quick addition.... if you use a "Y" (L,R, RCA to 3,5mm stereo adapter) it should go into the "Line in" jack on your sound card, The "Mic in" is only a mono.

I use a laptop Doug so the mic input is stereo if it is a desktop then the only other input is the line in on my Dell desktop there is no mic in only a line in

Juat goes to show, my sound card is dolby 7.1 with a whold slew of plug-ins stacked on the backplate. Some in, some out, some amplified, some line level and such.

You are correct though that most laptops will have a common jack for mic & line in, which would be dual channel....... and some of the newer ones have only one that shares mic in with monitor out requiring a "special" headset or an adapter. Have not got my head around that setup yet.... like what do you do if you want to record something and monitor it at the same time, or feed in a backing track and record along with it. Guess we will have to get an audio interface and route everything through that via usb. One more chunk of hardware I guess.

Take Care;Doug

That is easy with my Tascam DP24 I have a stereo headphone jack I can monitor and rca outs all I do is run a Y chord to the mic input and open Audacity and hit record, all the tracks that are panned and mixed and the one I am recording live all feed in so no problemo

Re: Re: M-Audio M-Track Plus... can anybody help me?

Strummerboy Bill wrote:

Audacity is too complicated for me. If I get just a cassette deck, can I make an MP3 by just connecting it to the RCA receptors on the back of my computer?

Thanks

Bill

You cant make an MP3 without a DAW (digital audio workstation) it converts the signal into a MP3 or WAV form so you can upload it or even email it the only other option is to video tape the song using a camera and upload it to your computer via a usb port.

Re: Re: M-Audio M-Track Plus... can anybody help me?

Tails - did you get it figured out? Top of my head, I'd have to agree with Doug that it's some type of software issue - not hardware. I know I couldn't get audacity to recognize my USB recorder at all when I tried a bunch of years ago. My work around was to just record onto my sd card and then upload the file into audacity and all was well. I have mixcraft now. I've played with it only a tiny itty bitty bit. It recognized my USB recorder immediately - however the latency was too big of an issue for me that I went back to my tried and true method. I haven't tried it again yet in my newer higher powered laptop. BUT - I don't expect better results because I don't have an amazing sound card in this - even though I have more power.

Bill - I suggest getting yourself a recording device like I'm talking about above. Mine is a Zoom recorder (tascam makes some good ones too). You record right on it, onto an SD card. If it records as a .WAV file, you can convert it right on the recorder into an MP3 and can normalize the file right there as well. Pull the SD card out, plop it into the computer, viola! Done. (or like Russell says, use a digital camera - similar idea). If you WANT to play around with a DAW you can do so with the .WAV file, but you don't have to. This would be, in my opinion, the simplest way to make your own music into MP3's. If you're talking about converting old cassette tapes that are already recorded, that's a different story.

Art and beauty are in the eyes of the beholder.What constitutes excellent music is in the ears of the listener.